Contributors
Hugh Hewitt - Principal Contributor

Mr. Hewitt is senior member of the CaliforniaRepublic.org editorial board. [go to Hewitt index]

Spin vs. Security
Shall the liberals on the 9-11 commission return us to the comfort of denial?...
[Hugh Hewitt] 4/14/04

Why were some members of the 9-11 Commission on the Sunday shows this past Easter weekend?

Isn't the Commission supposed to be non-partisan? Isn't it supposed to be acting in the national interest? Isn't it supposed to speak with one voice on the means by which another 9-11 might be avoided?

If so, why would Democrats Richard Ben-Veniste and Bob Kerrey feel obliged to appear on newsmaker shows? What "news" are they trying to make?

The truth is obvious: Ben-Veniste and Kerrey have thrown the national interest overboard in order to promote the interests of the Democratic Party. They understand that any final Commission report will at best be silent about the lapses of the Clinton administration, and may even be obliged by the weight of the evidence to underscore the negligence of the team that included Bill and Hillary, Sandy, Madeline and Richard. These folks had bin Laden in their sights on four occasions, and never once pulled the trigger. Could 9-11 have been avoided? Perhaps, but only by an all-out assault on the mastermind.

Dems know that the upshot of this reality is a second reality: The Democrats cannot be trusted to attend to the national defense; they cannot be trusted with the national security. No, they are not treasonous, simply unserious. They are to national security what third graders are to automobiles – individuals not capable of driving no matter how eager they might be to get behind the wheel.

So rather than slink away as any decent person confronted with the results of their own recklessness, the cobras of the past – Ben-Veniste, Kerrey and Roemer – have tried in vain to poison public opinion against Bush. They have hinted; they have whispered; they have waved memos.

So the president released the actual memo, and their pants are down around their ankles – again. Clinton and his team reduced the national intelligence capacity to broad warnings of bad weather sometime in the future. Bush launched new efforts, but there wasn't enough time to overcome eight years of partying and posturing. The blow fell. We were blind.

Now Kerrey and Ben-Veniste and the other servants want to persuade voters that all will be better if we return to the years of pretending. Perhaps they can stitch together a majority of the foolish.

But I don't think so. Millions of fanatics want millions of Americans dead. That's the reality. Kerry or Bush? I think Bush wins in a walk, no matter what the "commissioners" who put spin in front of service say. CRO

§

CaliforniaRepublic.org Principal Contributor Hugh Hewitt is an author, television commentator and syndicated talk-show host of the Salem Radio Network's Hugh Hewitt Show, heard in over 40 markets around the country. He blogs regularly at HughHewitt.com and he frequently contributes opinion pieces to the Weekly Standard.